About The Gene Emergence Project

The Gene Emergence Project is one of the programs of The Origin-of-Life
Science Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)3 science and education foundation with
corporate headquarters near NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center just off the
Washington, D. C. Beltway in Greenbelt, MD. 113 Hedgewood Drive, 20770-1610
Fax 301-441-8135

The Origin-of-Life Science Foundation should not be confused with "creation
science"or "intelligent design" groups. It has no religious affiliations of
any kind, nor are we connected in any way with any New Age, Gaia, or "Science
and Spirit" groups. The Origin-of-Life Science Foundation, Inc. is a science
and education foundation encouraging the pursuit of natural-process
explanations and mechanisms within nature. The Foundation's main thrust is to
encourage interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research projects by
theoretical biophysicists and origin-of-life researchers specifically into
the origin of genetic information/instructions/message/recipe in living
organisms. By what mechanism did initial genetic code arise in nature? The
primary interest of The Gene Emergence Project is to investigate the
derivation of functional monomeric sequencing at the rigid covalent-bond
level. This must occur prior to any selection for phenotypic fitness.

Fitting with the project's highly interdisciplinary nature, its advisors
include biochemists, molecular biologists, biophysicists, information
theorists, artificial life and intelligence experts, exo/astrobiologists,
mathemeticians, and origin-of-life researchers in many related fields. Please
feel free to e-mail or write us opinions, advice, and critiques, particularly
of the tentative rules themselves. We are developing as broad and as deep a
root system within the scientific community as possible.

The Foundation believes that advisors' personal metaphysical persuasions are
none of our business. Science is about "How?" Questions addressing "How?"
are about mechanism. As a science foundation, we are interested in models of
mechanism consistent with naturally-occuring biochemical phenomena and sound
information theory. We welcome as advisors competent scientists from widely
respected universities and laboratories around the world whose interest and
experience extends to origin-of-life queries.

We believe the judging is at least as critical a question as the audited
financials underwriting of the Prize. The decision of whether to award the
Origin-of-Life Prize ® must rest not with the Foundation, but with the most
internationally respected origin-of-life researchers themselves in accordance
with the published rules and requirements. Scientists' votes on any given
submission will be independently audited the same as the Foundation's
financial position.

The Foundation welcomes tax-deductible donations to be used for the promotion
of scientific inquiry into the origin of genetic prescriptive information
(instruction).

The Board of Directors consists largely of administrators/fundraisers rather
than life-origin bench scientists. Judging of the Prize is to be done by the
scientific community itself, not by the Foundation. No one at the Foundation
has a vote on any submission.